Passenger Linda Fowler was forced to brace herself as the plane she was travelling on – which was next in line to land after the business jet– had to pull out of its approach.

Ms Fowler, from Heightington, Worcestershire, said the EasyJet plane she was on was no more than 300ft from the tarmac.

She said: “As we were getting close the plane banked very steeply which was worrying.

“It was a very quick exit out of the landing pattern, you could see houses and lamposts so we were well into the descent.

“Due to the weather it got really turbulent, the plane was bouncing around and there were people being sick.

“A stewardess came by to tell us that the landing had been aborted and that we would go round and try again, we were then kept on hold for 20 mintues while the pilot attempted to get information from the airport.

“He came on and told us that we only had ten minutes of fuel left so he was going to take us to Stansted unless Luton opens up.“The thought ‘please get me down safely’ does run through your head at that point.”

Ms Fowler’s flight, from Paphos, Cyprus, was eventually diverted to Stansted, but passengers were forced to wait on the plane for another two hours while the situation at Luton Airport was looked into.

Once passengers were deplaned Stansted struggled to cope with the influx of diverted travellers.

Ms Fowler said: “It was chaotic at passport control, there were more than a thousand people.